London Trip 09/17/2009-9/18/2009

Friends in London - Ranjani, Kalyan, Sridhar, Raasi)
(Special thanks to Sridhar and Raasi Garemella)

We started on 16th night from Washington D.C. Since within Europe we are traveling on train we tried to keep the Luggage Minimum. We were able to travel with three pieces of luggage and these are so small that we were able to keep them in cabin baggage. The idea behind it is not to check in, so that we avoid any delays in Luggage arrival. The backpacks we got for trip are Rick Steves bags and to organize better we used Rick Steves cubes. If you are traveling to Europe please check the Rick steves website. He has done lot of travel especially to Europe and will be of immense help.

The travel time to london is around 6 hours but we do lose 5 hours because of the time difference. We were able to get only 3 hours of sleep on the flight. We were anitcipating this and we did not plan anything on Sept 17th morning. Immigration was smooth and they officer told we can stay for a max of six months. Our friends Rasi and Sridhar arrived at airport ontime and drove us back to their apartment in West ferry. This place is approx half an hour drive from central London but it took 2 hours because of traffic/road conditions. The roads and the driving conditions in London are not that good. I think we can blame British for Indian road conditions too because we just followed them.


Greenwich Mean Time is here

Took rest and started around 4:30 on the evening of 17th went to Greenwich park and Royal obeservatory of London. One thing I had observed within two days here is everything worth while seeing in London is somewhere related to Kings/Queens of Britian. Greenwich Meridian is nothing but an imaginary line which connects North and South. This line is in this park and this is one of the oldest parks which is patronised by British Royals. We have good view of London from here which gives us some good background for pictures. On the night our friend Sridhar and his wife Rasi took us around the central London and showed us West Minister abbey, Buckingham palace, oxford street, London eye.We also met other friends Kalyan and Ranjani and had dinner and desi flava which is in Hounslow, London. Nice ending of the day.

We had booked with Gray line tours for complete London tour which started around 9:20 (supposed to start at 8:45). Tony Randall was our guide and seems to be quite knowledgeble about the places. As I said before what ever we have seen today other than London eye and Cruise on Thames river much of the stuff is realted to Queen/Kings of Great Britain.


Royal guards band - 09/18/09

Change of guards at Buckingham Palace: Royal guards unit was created with sole purpose of protecting Royalty. It was started with around 500 guards and they change the duties in morning and another in the afternoon around 11:00. Tony (our guide) was prompt and gave us some good spot to record the event. We were able to take pictures individully with one of the guards and was able to talk to him. This guard is quite young as 19yrs and will be leaving to Afgan after 2 years. This was nice and must see event.



Royal guards - 09/18/09



Buckingham Palace

West Minister Abbey: Kings and queens get cornoted at this place. This is like royals church. Beautiful place must see. One interesting fact is Pope used to be the official priest for all the cornations early times but was removed because of differences with King now the church of England takes care of all the kings rituals/ religous stuff.

St Paul Cathedral: This is a 350 ft architectural marvel. This has two domes and highest building in london during 2nd world war. Eventhough all the surrounding buildings are bombed by Germans they did not bomb this eventhough it is biggest and clearly visible. Guess the reason. They want this as reference point to bomb every other building. British did not destroy it because of the religious sentiment. The cathedral has beautiful paintings on its dome and some modern art from moore. Must see place.



St Paul Cathedral Photo - 09/18/09

Tower of London: Has Queens Jewels especially Kohinoor diamonds. Interesting fact is these diamonds and Jewels they store will be used by Kings during their Cornations or Marriages. There we can see London Tower bridge which is another marvel and must see thing. The tower of london has also the places where lot of queens or royalty got executed. Two queens were beheaded for adultry. Two of the heirs were killed by their uncle so that he can be king.


London Tower on 09/18/09




Tower Bridge on 09/18/09


Covent Garden: It is a shopping place with theatre. Lot of Inidian eateries available at this place. Royal opera house is here. We watched a lady singing opera here. But I am not a big fan of it.



Opera at Covent garden

Thames river cruise: This river cuts the london into two and people generally say they stay south / north of the river. We can see all the buildings as well as another bridge called London bridge. Swara and some friends she made started their song London bridge is falling down. Must see.




All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances -- Shakespeare' quote from As you like it, and the dome in this building symbolises the Shakespere's famous dome where his plays are played.


London eye: A huge gaint wheel where we can see entire London in four directions. There is a 4-D movie here which was excellent. Must see place.



View of London eye from Thames river Cruise.